Until February 24 this year, the students of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Chandi Mandir, Haryana, started their day at 7.30am with the morning assembly, just like all the other students of the 1,067 Kendriya Vidyalayas. Attendance is at 7.25am and the assembly starts at 7.30am. It’s been working like clockwork for years.

But things have changed for schools run by the Central government. On February 24, a week after row in Jawaharlal Nehru University, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, the governing body of the schools functioning under the Human Resource Development, sent a notice of “Strict compliance of the provisions contained in the Flag Code of India, 2002 and Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971”. The notice made some news back in February but its exact content wasn’t known. Neither were the reasons behind this nationalistic thinking.

Newslaundry got hold of the notice and we suggest you read it yourself to believe it. (Among the don’ts, it emphasises that the national flag must not be used as a toy by children. Because of you know its cute, furry form.)

“This has been going on for a long time. All schools and government offices are supposed to hoist the national flag, it’s not like this is something new. We were just reiterating an earlier order,” said Dr V Vijaylakshmi, Joint Commissioner (Academic) of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS).

Which begs the question, what was the need to reiterate this order?

“We reiterate a lot of things,” said Vijaylakshmi. “Every year there are board exams and we tell students to study hard.” When asked about the last time a circular was sent reiterating the need to honour the tricolour, Vijaylakshmi couldn’t remember another instance during her tenure. She joined KVS in 1995.

The circular about the tricolour was sent in the week following the row in Jawaharlal Nehru University and the arrest of JNU Student Union President, Kanhaiya Kumar.

With the ongoing debate about nationalism, the government’s decision to make flag hoisting and saluting compulsory may be considered an attempt to inculcate feelings of nationalism among children.

“Young minds, as we understand them, are highly impressionable,” said Dr Sanjay Chugh, a psychiatrist. “Thus, any ritual being practiced regularly has the potential of eventually becoming a part of our psyche and the person’s value system.” However, he did say that people, as they grow up, can discard some of their beliefs, which they feel are less rational.

There is an alternative take on the effect of this flag hoisting ritual. For Dr Samir Parikh, who heads the Department of Mental Health and Behavioural Sciences at Fortis Healthcare, there’s too much negativity in the society today. “We should try to bring positivity to children and national pride is something we should very much feel positive about,” he said, adding that standing up to one’s national flag isn’t an uncommon practice all over the world.

Admittedly, there’s nothing unusual about a government asking its citizens to honour the flag. It’s just that the timing makes the “reiteration” worth noting.

Ironically, one of the more high-profile recent cases of the Indian tricolour being dishonoured refers to Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. Last year, he signed a tricolour which he gifted to American President Barack Obama. As per the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Act, 2005, writing on the flag can be interpreted as defiling it.

More recently, one Ashish Sharma was aghast at the Prime Minister’s casual handling of the flag on International Yoga Day. “On that day, PM was wearing the tricolour, which is the national flag of India,” said Sharma. “The PM cleaned his face and sweat of his body all over and cleaned his nose as well, he wiped his face with national flag in front of the world…All the media worldwide as well as Indian Media took photos of PM insulting our national flag.”

Perhaps if Modi as a boy had been made to salute the flag instead…? Maybe the next Bal Narendra comic book will have a story on this.